A New Adventure: Sermon on the Mountain

This is a woodcut which may take a long time to make. The paper is Kochi-shi unbleached mulberry fibre, rather coarse. For the main four blocks I have used 'Hoop pine' and 'Poplar' ply.

carving the key block

this is the block used for shading

Many, many years ago, buildings were finished off using the simplest of elements and materials to hand, and for the mostpart, those simple finishes proved to be the most appropriate against the harsh weather conditions.

With that in mind I’m experimenting with the colours on this print by using white lime and iron oxide, straight from the shelves of the building supply store, normally used for rendering and white washing. I wondered how much the lime would absorb the other inks and how well it would print. I haven’t used any binding agents. So far so good.

a clean up after the winter and into printing again

lime, sumi, iron oxide and etching ink

For shading I use sumi ink and for the key block a matt black oil based etching ink. Right through, depending on the block, I will use either a baren or an etching press.

the one and only proof so far

The photos are of the blocks and the one proof made so far (very rough and impatiently).

detail of proof

Every single section in the vaulting will be overprinted depicting various scenes of the past. The fabric of the building is not just stone, mud and lime.

curved plank of solid beech sitting on its edge

For those detailed blocks I found a nice plank of beech, which incidentally, was used in the early days of printing as the preferred material for cutting blocks in Europe.

sack and massacre of Beziers and sack of Acre

Montsegur and Bartholomew Night

One section of vaulting will be printed using a combination of set type and calligraphy and miniature painting for a capital letter. Another section will be an icon in gold.

The plan is to make at least ten prints with those blocks. What’s more, I hope to do it before the end of the year. Watch this space...

You've been watching for a long time. We now live in January 2018. Time flies. 

The blocks have been cut.

And proofed.

Additional blocks were cut on linoleum with references to more recent outrages.

Employed letter type to add text to a section of this print.

Ready to print.

Text printed and the first capital hand painted

The completed print.

Background of the print “To Ponder”: Instead of calling this print as I intended "Sermon on the Mountain" I thought it was a matter "To Ponder"

Inspiration for this print was a section of the ruins of the medieval abbey of Villelongue, north west of Carcassonne.

Thousands of years ago there were many unexplained things happening which people explained by weaving stories which became myths. Over time those myths morphed into beliefs and into doctrines. While the story progressed some people put another spin on those beliefs. Tolerance allowed beliefs to exist side by side, but our tolerance appears to have completely dwindled, despite ready access to literature and internet.

The edifice represents a part of this region’s history. What took place then is still happening under our noses except that the scale of the horror in now greater and the methods employed are manifold.

How the print was made:

The print has progressed over the last few years, depending on what I was occupied with at the time, and at a rate which allowed me to research essential elements.

The main “frame”, for want of a better word, is printed using five blocks of poplar ply.

The white background has been done using white lime with a dash of linseed oil.

For the ochre I used iron oxide with rice paste.

The dark shadows and all the black lines are done with “Sumi” and the shadows done in “bokashi” style.

Everything was printed by hand along the lines of the Japanese “Moku Hanga” method.

The meaning:

Two vaults depict the sack of Acre by the Crusaders in their quest to subdue the Muslims; the sack of Beziers and the burning of the Cathars on Mont Ségur during a crusade initiated by the Pope to bring, as he called it, ‘heretics into line’; and a scene of the Bartholomew night when Catharina de Medici dealt with the Protestants.

These scenes were carved on a beech plank, like Albrecht Dührer would have done at the time.

The upper vault depicts more recent history - the outrage of the apartheid era and the current situation in the Middle East.

As such they are represented by a more modern medium of linoleum and a different style of drawing.

The genocide in Armenia, in Rwanda Burundi, in Sréberniça and the camps of the Holocaust during the Second World War.

These names of recent history are written using a pen made of a goose feather quill.

With letter type I printed the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations in Latin. This was based on the first declaration of the United States of America Constitution and the French constitution of 1791. The English and French translations are:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

This is followed by an excerpt of a poem written by Yevgeni Yevtushenko called Babi Yar.

Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar,

The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement.

Here, silently, all screams, and, hat in hand,

I feel my hair changing shade to gray.

And I myself, like one long soundless scream

Above the thousands of thousands interred,

I'm every old man executed here,

As I am every child murdered here.

Now, more than ever, I believe people should heed the past and not fall prey to populists, megalomaniacs and demented rulers.

Setting up a printing workshop

planning and carving

These days it’s a Nikon D70 I use with a few extra lenses. That, combined with a computer and Adobe professional Photoshop CS, enables you to do just about anything you can possibly turn your mind to. I do not have to elaborate on that because everyone knows and it is not really that interesting.

Much more fun it was some years ago using an Agfa Clack. I was boarding with a gentleman in Medan, Indonesia who introduced me to the darkroom and processed the first pictures made with that Agfa (still using red light during processing). After that a procession of Zeiss Ikon nettar, Ikoflex, Werra, M3 with the most beautiful lens I ever had (a Summicron 135 mm), Nikkormat and now the D70.

eel nets

It was magic then. It took planning. The visualisation of what you wanted to achieve. Pick the right moment in the 24 hrs, the right light the right everything. Pick the right sort of film, developer, paper and all the tricks in your memory etc, etc, (now using amber light during the process). Then the magic moment was there, just as you wanted it or still a surprise anyway.

carving the block

That applies to woodcut or woodblock printing. Not the index finger and a mouse to operate the printer hanging at the end of your computer or even more simple, buy some print in a store because it matches the curtains.

block with wash between the lines

Creating a woodcut print is fun. It takes planning and the visualisation of what you hope to achieve. It is something you need to learn, but it is not rocket science. Everyone has an artistic bent somewhere and sometimes you may have to dig a bit deeper to find it, but the skill to translate an idea into a woodblock print can be learned step by step and once acquired will apply to anything that follows.

sumi applied with a brayer

This blog is additional to my website . It is meant to deal mainly with the new adventure of setting up a printing atelier in the South of France. Apart from using it myself of course, the idea is to create a place where anyone can come, when one can learn about the timber, the chisels, how to use them, transferring images and printing, find out that nothing is straight forward and that there are infinite ways to skin a cat. Not meant personally cats, I like you too.

Anyway, it is all taking shape veeery slooowly ( see link), but we are getting there. Three presses, several working tops. Presently a wet bench with a large size sink under construction. Also setting up for etching with copper sulphate on zinc with or without electrolysis. Paper drawers. Letter type sets (for extra interest) etc, etc.

If you are already a printer and artist, you find yourself in these regions and want to play with all this, but haven’t got the facilities you are perfectly welcome too. There is no pretence. We are all equal and are all learning all of our lives and then we can forget.

To warm the place up, I’ve had the help (and still have) of some friendly students to get the atelier and its concept together. On this page are some photos of them at work. One of the students had to meet a deadline with at least one stage of her print of which the result is shown. This block is by no means ready and there will be three more blocks before the final print is made.

Alice's print printed on Kochishi in two stages, first stage the wash was printed using the thumbs to push the moist paper down between the relief

However and here is the point I was trying to make after this long and cumbersome introduction. When the paper was pulled of the block there was the magic and a happy face and I hope to see a few more.